Rebirth of a Holy Dragoon
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy. OCs belong to various friends. I think you know the drill by now.
Notes: None at the moment, just keeping this here in case there are in the future.
Warnings: You don't remember the list of warnings I gave before? Fine. Here. Cursing, potential OOC, OC x Canon, stupid fluffy romance, sex, angst, self-insert author avatar, shitty storytelling.
FIC START!
Chapter Thirty-seven
Canti's time studying Mysidian with Minwu went smoothly. There wasn't anything weird to go over, and because the two of them had talked a little about the troubles that Minwu faced before, they had become much more understanding of one another. The bell rang to signal the end of the school day, and Canti ended up meeting all of her friends outside under the Garden's main foyer. She yawned loudly, but she was happy being surrounded by all of them at the end of the typical school day.
"Hey, I was thinking maybe we should all go to the theater," Hikari said. Tidus and Vivi instantly agreed to the idea.
Crystal nodded. "I'd like to go. Last time I went was almost a year ago."
Kain looked over at Canti to see what she said. If she was up for going, he'd probably throw a few gil at it for the chance to do something both away from the manor and with Canti away from school or either of their fathers. "I don't mind the idea," he said with a shrug.
Minwu shook his head. "I'm sorry. You know I cannot deviate from my schedule, as inviting as that sounds."
"I'd go, but I have an assignment," Canti said. "Homework for Chorus."
"Chorus gives homework?" Crystal asked. "How?"
Canti crossed her arms. "Chorus is for bards in training, and bards have to be able to use both their voices and sounds they make to cause different effects."
Hikari cocked her head to the side. "So you have to study that for a test or something?"
"Oh, no, no, I have a lot of that memorized now," she said, shrugging. "Nope. I have to write a song for our upcoming concert in a few weeks."
"You have a few weeks to complete this assignment though," Tidus said.
Kain didn't understand a single thing about bards or how anything they did in battle actually worked. He wasn't a musician, and while he sang to himself every now and then, he didn't really make that big a deal of it. He did notice that Canti prided herself on her ability to sing. She was taking the whole assignment very seriously. Perhaps even if she was accepted as a dragoon, she was going to go for a dual class? He didn't think it would be that handy in battle, at least, not as handy as the white magic she was learning in Magical Mastery. He put his hand on Canti's shoulder. "If you do not wish to go so you can focus on your homework, then in good conscience I can't go against that. Studying is of the utmost importance."
"That's not what you're supposed to say if you want to take her on a date," Hikari said quietly, leaning into Kain. "Because we all know you want to."
Kain blushed.
"Amuse him," Crystal said with a giggle. "Canti, if you have a few weeks to prepare for your concert, then you can spare a few hours at the most to make Kain happy."
"Why would we go on a date with all you voyeurs hanging about?" Kain asked.
"So we could see it, obviously," Hikari said. "I mean. Why else?"
"Forget it," Kain said, frowning. "You'd rather watch us than watch the play."
"Yeah, because that's not acting. It's real. Makes it a whole lot more interesting," Crystal kept giggling.
"Because of people overhearing you lot, we're gonna have people starting rumors," Kain grunted. "I'm going to go on ahead. I believe you can see yourself home, Canti." He ran off and jumped out of sight, leaving Canti there to just stare at her gal pals.
"You two!" Canti said angrily at them. "I can't believe you…"
"I still wanna go to the theater."
"That's just fine, but I've lost interest," Canti said, walking on ahead of them. She headed in the direction of home, far beyond the steps of her friends very quickly. She wasn't even thinking of Kain at the time, but knowing that they had made him feel embarrassed like that only served to annoy her. She kept on walking until she found someone waiting there on the sidewalk for her.
This man didn't look familiar to her. She tried to avoid him, but he stepped in front of her. "Excuse me," he said. "I am from the Westside Orphanage, and I've come to speak with you."
Hearing the name of the orphanage she lived in before Cid adopted her sent fear down her spine. She tried to walk around him, but the man turned to face her completely, not allowing her to pass. "I'm going home," she said. "Because I have a home and a family now."
"Yes, I know you do," he reached for her arm. "I just want to ask you questions about what life is like for you, one year after being adopted."
"Except for you, everything is perfect," Canti said. As she tried to dart for the other side of the street, the stranger had grasped around her arm and held her still. "Let me go."
"Come with me…" he said, pulling her closer by the arm. "…I'm sure you remember me, don't you?"
"If I did, I wouldn't want to!" Canti's voice was louder, hoping someone would hear her. But then she remembered that her friends weren't taking the road home, they were headed to the theater. "Let me go!"
"You don't have to be afraid."
"I'm not! I'm mad that some stranger isn't letting me go home!" she was now shouting at him, pulling with all of her strength to get away from him. Canti wanted to reach for her spear, but the stranger kicked it out of her reach when he noticed she was trying to get it. It clattered on the ground and rolled a bit away from her. "Get off of me!"
"Hush…" the stranger said, putting a hand on her hip. She cringed. "…I'm not going to hurt you so long as you cooperate with me."
Canti stared down the road, hoping that Papa Cid would be headed home now from the ship-yards. If he was, he'd see this. He'd make it stop. This reminded her far too much of a nightmare she'd had, where the hands of someone went up her skirt. She felt tears form in her eyes. "Let me go!" she yelled as loudly as she could.
The stranger put a something over her eyes and while she struggled more to break away from him, he held her tighter still. She could tell she was being picked up right off the ground and carried away until…
"Stop right there," a voice said, though she couldn't tell if it was in front or behind where she was. "You will let the girl go, if you know what's good for you."
"I'm taking her with me."
"Wrong answer."
There was a click, and suddenly she could hear footsteps all around her. Had someone brought the authorities? The stranger dropped Canti right onto her tush, leaving her hurt and afraid as he turned around to run. She lied there on the sidewalk before whatever it was that blocked her vision was removed and she saw a group of men in uniform standing all around.
"Miss, are you all right?" one asked. All she could do was nod. "Who is your parental guardian? What is your name?" Canti didn't really have it in her to speak, so she reached into her purse and pulled out her identification card. It showed all sorts of information about who she was. The man who was nearest to her scanned the card with something that was on his wrist. "Do you know who that man was?" She shook her head. "We're not going to leave you home alone after such an incident. Your father can come get you to take you home." The man picked her up and wrapped her in a blanket. "We've sent an alert to his workplace. Don't worry, you're safe now."
Canti just cried. She hadn't ever been this confused before.
…
Cid hadn't been in the ship-yards for far too long. He missed working on the old engines, but now he didn't want to build or manufacture them. He wanted to know where they'd come from. Who'd built them? He went to one of the hangars far from the entrance, knowing that if he was caught out here that he was going to have some high-ranking people pelting him with questions about what he was doing out here. The old retired pilot found the engine he was looking for, though. It wasn't even covered up! He climbed onto a ladder to get higher up to examine it. How many times had Cid worked on this kind of engine? He didn't remember studying it at Garden, or reading any books about it, but he knew it. He knew every part, one piece at a time, in his mind. Like he built it himself. He never saw anyone else working on this type of engine. And every time an engine had been brought to his workstation, it was this exact engine, too.
"This is exactly the kind of engine that was in that picture," Cid said, leaning over it. "I know it was."
"...what are you doing in here?"
Cid looked down to see that Otto Bunansa was standing there, looking up at him with this expression on his face. "I'm coming to learn a bit about what I've been working on, and hopefully, a bit about myself. What are you doing here?"
"I watched you come in here, even though you know this place is off-limits," Otto grunted. "But that's not important right now. What is-"
"Shut up, Otto. There's something I have to know," Cid said, climbing on top of the engine itself.
"There is a notification going off at your station-"
Cid put his hand up to shut him up. He was not going to fall for one of Otto's pranks again. He just kept looking until he found a particular piece that was connected to the propeller rotation pistons. He ran his fingers over it, knowing that he never worked with this particular piece since he came to work here, but he had seen it. The writing on it was none other than his own! "…I knew it! This is my invention!" he proclaimed. But he didn't remember actually inventing it. He didn't remember attaching it to a ship, even though he'd seen a finished model on the feedsite. The ship was called the Highwind, after all. It was his! It was his ship! He built it! That must mean that he was the mysterious pilot he'd been searching for!
Otto held a communication device in his hand. He held down a button as he spoke into it. "Yes. I've found him, sir… No, I've tried. You may want to come down yourself… yes, sir. Understood."
Cid came out of the engine and climbed down off of it via the ladder, landing on the floor. "Came to rat me out?" he asked.
"Not at all. But since you wouldn't listen to me before, I'm not going to tell you what's going on. I guess your daughter will have to suffer longer," Otto said with a shrug.
"My daughter?!" Cid growled, snatching Otto's collar. "What do you know of her suffering?!" He held the spindly mechanic up by his collar, damn near choking him.
"More than you do!" Otto said.
"Fucking Bunansas!" he yelled, tightening his grip. "Always gotta be-"
"Cid! Let him go!" the voice he heard now belonged to his boss, Setzer. Cid did as he was told, dropping Otto right onto the pavement. "Your brother insisted that you would be home on orders from the Warriors of the Water, but here I find you in an off limits hangar about to murder one of your coworkers… I don't understand what's gotten into you, but it may have something to do with your daughter. I understand she's gone through a lot."
"Why have you both brought up my daughter?" Cid asked.
"Otto followed you here to tell you that your workstation has been going off for a while now because of a parental alert given by the police. Turns out, your daughter was assaulted on her way home from Garden," Setzer said, crossing his arms.
"...Canti was…" Cid shook his head. "…assaulted?"
"Some boy from her school noticed the incident and called police to take care of the assailant, but the fact is that she's being taken care of in the police department. They've been searching for you everywhere. They've called me, they've called your brother, anyone that could get in contact with you," Setzer said again. "Get the hell out of here, forget all of whatever it was that you were doing, and go take care of your daughter!" He pointed at the door and Cid ran for it, jumping out of sight to get to the police station quicker than just going by foot.
"I can't believe that asshole," Otto grunted.
Setzer sighed. "It's time to take this one apart," he said. "Otto, get to it."
"What? Me? Shouldn't you have Cid do it?!"
"After what happened today, he won't be coming back to work here for quite a while," Setzer said. "I need all of this engine taken completely apart and melted down before he comes back looking for answers again. I do not want to send a request to Leviathan to clear his memory again, as he's been disconnected for a while, but we may have to."
"Yes, sir," Otto grunted again, climbing up to the top of the engine via the ladder.
…
When Cid made it to the police station, he found Richard standing there, ready to knock his brother's head clear off his shoulders. Cid was panting heavily, almost ready to faint. It was a long way to get here without transportation.
"Where have you been, Cid?" Richard asked. "You weren't at home resting, like I ordered you to. You weren't at work. You weren't even at your old favorite bar from our school days!" He crossed his arms, glaring at him. "I told you to focus on what was important and you've not listened to a single thing I've said!"
"Richard, please… I've been… looking into some things, and I found-"
"I don't care what you found. Your daughter. My niece. Our newest dragoon. Was assaulted today not just a few blocks away from your home!" Richard nearly screamed at him. "And witnesses say that her voice was loud. Had you been at home, you would have heard her." He was holding back tears. "You were the one telling everyone just how sensitive your daughter is, and here you were, not there for her!"
A door opened and Kain came in. "Father, Canti's awoken…" he said, turning to go back in. He looked sadder than either of the elder Highwind brothers. He blamed himself, because if he had gone with her, then there was no way this would have happened. He could have agreed to go to the theater with her girlfriends even if they were being stupid and silly, because then he could have protected her from whoever it was. He typically would walk her home, but he didn't want to deal with rumors of their relationship while at Garden during the day. Kain went to Canti's side. He knew that she was staring at him, and he wondered if she blamed him, too.
Cid and Richard came into the room where Canti had been lying on a cot. There was a police officer in the room with them, just making sure that she was only with family. She looked at her uncle, and she looked at her Papa Cid. Just like in her dream, when the hands of shadow touched her in ways that made her feel dirty and scared, when she needed him, he hadn't been there. Tears fell from her eyes, and as Cid stared into her blue hues, he broke down, too.
"You should have been there," Richard said angrily. "I ordered you to be at home, to rest! Ever since that Schizo appeared, you've not been the same, Cid." He shook his head, walking over to stand behind Kain. "As the head of the Highwind family and the Grand Dragoon of the Warriors of the Water, I decree that from now on, the two of you will live at Highwind Manor."
"What?" Cid asked. "No! I'm not living with you again!"
"Because you don't want to have to follow my orders," Richard said sternly. "But look at your daughter! You aren't doing your job, now are you?"
Cid looked at Canti again. Richard was right. He was so determined to get answers to his questions about the past that he'd forgotten to take care of the present, and this was the punishment the fates decided to give him.
Kain put his hand on Canti's forehead. "Have you told everyone here what's happened, cousin?" he asked her calmly.
"I… told the police," she whispered to him. "But most of the account came from… the boy that saw it… and saved me…"
"Who was it? I will have to give this young man a personal thank you," Richard said. "I will go to his parents myself to commend him! Keeping an eye out for you was a very responsible thing to do. Tell me who he was, Cantirena, and I will see him rewarded."
Canti took in a deep breath. "The boy that saved me was… Mateus Palamecia."
